


Mistake

by MrProphet



Category: Arthurian Mythology
Genre: Gen, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 18:31:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10702698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrProphet/pseuds/MrProphet





	Mistake

Morgana’s intuition began as a gnawing in the pit of her stomach, rather like hunger, but quickly built to a feverish panic that she could not shake. She knew at once that what she was feeling indicated some dire threat to her family. Not Elaine, she could look after herself; Morgause then, or perhaps…

“Arthur,” she whispered, suddenly certain.

After a day and a half of revels the camp was quiet in the cool of morning. The kings of Britain and their retainers had drunk themselves into a stupor, either to celebrate the finding of the new high king or to commiserate that it was not them. A few sentries remained awake, but hardly alert, and even the wariest would not have spared Morgana a glance beneath her witch’s veil. Eyes slid away from her; ears worked very hard not to hear her footsteps.

Arthur’s tent was unguarded, or rather the guard was asleep. Arthur’s foster-brother, Cai, lay hard against the tent post. Morgana crouched and lifted his eyelid.

“Drugged.” She thought about what she had seen of Cai during the tournament. He was tall and handsome, but had the marks of great wisdom and cunning about him as well. Since Arthur had pulled the sword from the stone in the churchyard, Cai had never been far from his side, his eyes burning with the witch sight; the veil would have been little use against him and if he had been drugged it would have to have been by someone he trusted. It would have to have been Arthur himself, but why…?

“Oh no,” Morgana groaned, as another thread of intuition tickled her consciousness. She pushed impatiently into the tent.

Merlin had more-or-less convinced the assembled kings that Arthur was some kind of god in mortal aspect, but here before Morgana was proof that he was naught but a man, and a luckless one at that.

“Get up!” she snapped.

Arthur raised his weary head. “What…?”

“Not you.” She held out a hand and focused the force of her will. “Sleep.” Arthur’s head slumped onto his pillow. “Now, get up.”

Morgause stretched lazily. “I don’t know what you’re so angry about,” she groused. “I was neither bride nor virgin and a widow may do as she pleases. He’s a little young, perhaps…”

“Morgause!” Morgana felt the power fill her frame and overflow. She could feel her hair brush against the canopy of the tent and her arms touch the fabric walls on either side. Morgause quailed from Morgana as her aspect swelled to fill the entire tent.

“What did I do wrong?” Morgause demanded.

“Have you forgotten?” Morgana demanded. “Have you forgotten Arthur?”

Morgause glanced at the youth sleeping at her side.

“ _Our_  Arthur!” Morgana gripped her sister’s shoulders and hauled her to her feet. “Our brother, Morgause!”

Slowly, realisation dawned.

“This is…?”

Morgana flung Morgause her gown, fighting against her own revulsion. “Get dressed,” she said. “We don’t have long.”

“Long?” Morgause struggled into the dress.

“Merlin will come,” Morgana hissed. “He will know, as I do.”

“Know what?”

Morgana splayed her hand across her sister’s belly. “This sin shall beget the death of Merlin’s Summer Kingdom,” she hissed.

“No!”

“Yes! Merlin shall seek to destroy it.”

Morgause retreated in horror, folding her hands over her stomach. “He can’t!”

“He will if he knows; he has foreseen, as I have, that Arthur’s child shall be the end of all his hopes. He will do all in his power to end that threat, unless…”

“Yes.”

Morgana held out her hand over Arthur’s head. She closed her eyes in concentration and let her power flow out into the boy’s mind, carefully unpicking his memories of the last few hours. “I’m afraid, dear sister, that Arthur will not remember you.”

“But…”

“And you will not remember him.” Morgana held out her other hand to touch Morgause on the brow.

“No!”

“Merlin would snatch the thought from your mind in a second, Morgause; you must forget. But I will try to make sure you remember to be more mindful, in future, of the consequences of your actions.”


End file.
